Friday, February 27, 2009

This video recipe is my fairly weak attempt at the famous Vietnamese spicy beef noodle soup, Pho. As I shopped for the ingredients, I had a nice package of beef oxtail in my hand, but since I was just making a small batch, and I already had two beautiful beef shanks in the basket, I decided to not get them. That was a mistake.

While this beef noodle soup wasn't bad, it wasn't spectacularly great which is what Pho should be. The signature of this soup is a very rich, deeply flavored, collagen-infused beef broth. I overestimated the beef shanks, and it was lacking exactly what the oxtails would have added.

Also, to add to this Pho's fauxness, I went pretty light on the spices. Real Pho has more of the aromatic spices you'll see in the video. I also didn’t add the extra sliced beef that is traditional, like brisket, flank, and thinly sliced, rare filet mignon. I also didn’t char the ginger, which is recommended. I also didn't pronouce Pho correctly - I say, "Pho," when it's actually more like, "Fuh." Despite all this, I still had a pretty nice beef soup, but it really made me crave a real Pho.

Don’t get me wrong, I encourage you to make this recipe - the technique you'll see is fairly accurate, but I advise you to add a couple pounds of oxtails, and maybe twice the spices. Also, for homework, find the nearest Vietnamese restaurant and order a bowl of Pho so you can see what we are trying to do here. Enjoy!

Well, as a Vietnamese who is well familiar with this national dish, I could tell that you got the spices -- which is the main part -- quite right. Like you said, the broth is often made with oxtail, and there actually is no meat in the broth itself. Thin slices of tenderloins are arranged on top when served. You could also season with a little bit hoisin sauce.

Two additional cultural notes here: Pho (or Phở) does not rhyme with d'oh. It's pronounced roughly 'fuh.' And slurping is only acceptable in Japan and Korea (I think). In Vietnam, it is considered very impolite.

Pho is a weekly lunch outing for me. My local place uses small chopped green onions as a topper in the bowl, and I like to add thin slices of beef eye round. Sriracha hot sauce (rooster on the bottle) is a nice sub for the chili paste.

If I may quote mayself from the text... " I also didn't pronounce Pho correctly - I say, "Pho," when it's actually more like, "Fuh." Are some of you just reading this blog for the pictures (and video)?

Chef John, haha good job on your version of "pho" lolol i have pho at least once a week! its the best thing to eat after a night out of yea... LOL sobers me up instantly! lolagain Kudos Chef john i love your videos

Many years ago I was waiting for a bowl of pho at a Hanoi roadside stall with my friends. As if in slow motion, we watched the seller take a big spoonful of MSG (those Chinese spoons you used in the video, mind you), and dumped it on the noodles.

We still ate the noodles, but had to drink bottles of water after that.

The meat in our pho was so tough that we wondered if it was buffalo meat.

I always pronounce it as "fur" with a rising tone. What you made was Pho Bo. And someone mentioned it before - do not slurp while drinking your soup. It's considered very rude and uncouth (unless you're in a Japanese ramen shop).

This is my 1st comment eventho I’ve been reading your blog for this past 6 months, and i love it. I tried couple of recipe and they were superb, so thanks a bunch, tho some didn't end up as well as yours :P

I just check the Asian section and found that you haven’t put any Indonesian food at all. Mind if I give you some recipe? I watch this video, and find the recipe is a bit similar with my favorite soup. If you're any interested, give me a word, and I’ll write down the recipe for you. I would love to share some Indonesian recipe for you.

oh, my mistake :P. and a little bit misunderstanding, i think.what i meant was, i just want to share Indonesian recipe with you, maybe if you're interested. so, i'm not exactly wish some food. in the contrary, i want to share this one particular recipe called "Banjar Soup"

but, since you're asking, can you give some easy cheesecake recipe? :D

And might as well i put down the "Banjar Soup" recipe here. I haven't convert some of the measurement, i hope it's ok. Btw, pardon my english. i'm not very good in cooking vocabulary :P

How to cook:1. Boil chicken to tender. After the meat is tender, pick up and cut into pieces.2. Saute smashed ingredients in a pan with oil.3. Pour in the chicken stock.4. Add the green onion, cinnamon, clove, cardamom, celery and salt.5. Boil the soup.

This soup taste very spicy. I hope you like it. And if you already know and try this recipe, well... do you like it? :DIf you intend to do some modification on this recipe, i would like to know it. Who knows it will taste beyond great :D

Your Pho looks so delicious but it isn't real Pho. There aren't any fennel seeds and soya sauce. Pho was originate from the North of Vietnam. So the traditional Pho doesn't have bean spouts. But if you go to the South, people always add bean sprouts into Pho. I think if you want to try the real Pho, shouldn't add any bean sprouts or eat with fresh herbs because Pho has only soft ingredients and doesn't include any crispy things. Maybe where u live they have only restaurants which are established by Southern people. However, I really enjoyed your videos, especially the directions how to make cakes. Easy to follow and understand. Thank you for sharing. Have a nice day Chef John :X

I used oxtails, beef shanks, and thin beef. 3 quarts of water wasn't quite enough with all that meat. Salt is not mentioned in the recipe; however, it needed a lot, and more soya sauce than the recipe called for.

Hi Chef John, At the Vietnamese restaurant I work at, their secret to a great Pho is putting the onions in whole, they don't use any chunks of meat just marrow bones, and at the early frying stage they fry these marrow bones along with the ginger, cassia bark, cloves, and - secret ingredient totally unfamiliar to me until now - dried flattened mini squids (http://www.thaisquid.com/resources/15.+dried+squid+skin-on.jpg - yep these look like something from alien, but they impart a flavour that is absolutely amazing). You fry all this together until browned and then add your water, season, and strain. The beef for Pho Bo (or chicken if you are making Pho Ga) is sliced thin and put raw on top of the noodles, been sprouts and lots of vietnamese mint, then the hot soup ladeled on top cooks the meat. For Pho Bo, it's garnished with a lemon wedge, sliced red chilli, a small squirt of hoisin sauce, and a small squirt of very hot chilli sauce (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sriracha_sauce). For Pho Ga, you just garnish with the cut chilli and lemon wedge. Absolutely delicious! :) Thanks for your website, I love your videos!

And yes, as someone else has said, MSG is always used liberally to flavor the stock. I don't think they need it to be honest, but it is widely used throughout Asia in the belief it balances the flavors.

I can't wait to try this! I feel dumb for asking, but i really don't know. Do you skim any foam off the top when making this stock, like you would with chicken?

Thank you so much, Chef John. I've been teaching myself how to cook for 10 years, but my talent has exploded these past year and a half when I discovered your site! I've learned so many techniques and ideas, I can't thank you enough :)

I'm a Vietnamese and it's interesting to see your attempt at making our favorite traditional food. I've got to say that making homemade pho is difficult even for Vietnamese. It would take several failures until you could get the hang of it. I myself had to research a tons of resources before I could make pho that I believe is the closest to the pho I had in Vietnam. The determining factor of good pho is the broth. Most of the time the pho we make goes wrong is due to the broth not properly made. Also there is difference between the northern and pho and the southern pho. I come from the north and prefer northern pho since I don't really like the sweetness in southern pho, which is typical of southern cuisine.

Hi Chef John. I really want to make this recipe, but I can't get kosher fish sauce (I am Jewish and only eat kosher. Besides, for most jews, even kosher fish sauce would be a problem in this recipe since we generally don't mix fish with meat) Is there any remotely acceptable substitute and how much of it would I need? I have never had real pho to even compare but I would like to try this recipe.

I love pho, and although I know it is pronounced fuh, I still pronounce it pho – it may be wrong, but I like the way it rolls off my tongue more. So in my small family (3 of us) we say it wrong. I have to add that I love thinly sliced yellow onion added to my bowl at the same time as the noodles - the slight crunchiness of the onion in an occasional bite is wonderful. I don’t like my soup spicy but that is a personal thing. When I have my chopsticks loaded with the noodles, my favorite part is squeezing lime juice on that bite. Not the same as squeezing the lime juice into the broth. Chopsticks in one hand, lime in the other, juice on almost every bite. Everyone thinks I’m crazy, but I love it. When I made pho, my house smelled like a Vietnamese restaurant for days. At first it was welcoming and I loved it, but by the end of 2nd day I figured it would be a while before I would want pho again. But I was wrong. Pho is just so comforting it would be hard to not want it every week. I have been on a soup kick lately, and I would like to say thank you for your great videos.

As a Vietnamese person who eats this at least once every two weeks, thanks to my mother, I have to say Hoisin sauce is a must for a delicious somewhat sweet broth. Please try it with hoisin sauce next time. I guarantee the hoisin sauce will make the biggest difference!

Seven times I have attempted to make pho with an identical recipe as you have given here. Seven times it has been passably good, but hardly great when compared to the soup that I have eaten in several Vietnamese restaurants. Until one day...I went to my favorite Vietnamese restaurant here in Tampa. Of course I ordered pho. I like extra vegetables in mine, so I ordered them. I prepared my soup just as I have prepared it each and every time that I eat it. A little of this, a little of that. Chopsticks in one hand, spoon in the other. And I take a BIG bite. And I am shocked at what I am eating. "Why, this doesn't taste like pho", I said to myself. The server comes over and asks how my soup is. I say, "Well, quite honestly, it's terrible and watery and bland." She says, "You put too many vegetables in it." She takes it away and quickly brings it back. I know it's my soup because it has my vegetables in it that aren't supposed to be served with this soup. I taste it and it's the pho that I know and have loved for years.Then I got to thinking...the cook/chef forgot to put something in it. I gasp! Could there be a pho base that they put in a basic broth that they use for many other soups?I go my wonderful Asian market and discover, "Why yes! As a matter of fact there is. Not only is there a pho base,but there are bases for EVERYTHING Asian!"So I go home and I make my pho for the 8th time. Same instructions, same ingredients, same everything. I add the pho base, take a taste, and omg...THIS is IT!!!Enjoy.